Fried Oyster カキのフライ

Fried oyster is by no means a traditional Japanese dish but  Japanese appear to like it very much. This item appears on Izakaya menus as well as family style Japanese restaurants called "taishu shokudo" 大衆食堂 or similar low-key restaurants. the Japanese modification must be the use of Japanese "panko" パン粉 for breading. Thinly cut raw cabbage キャベツ is served as an accompaniment as well as "tonkatsu" sauce (often).

We used to be able to get nice plump Pacific oysters when we were in California. Here, oysters are mostly small (especially the ones from the Chesapeake). This time, I got oysters already cleaned in a jar (probably pasteurized) and not really big. I toyed with an idea of making them into an oyster stew but decided to make fried oysters. The recipe I used here is not that different from a typical Western recipe. Wash the oysters gently in cold water, pat them dry using paper towels, dredge them in flour, egg water, and then "panko" bread crumbs. Deep fry (I may have used oil that was too hot for this batch) for a few minutes until the outside is nicely crispy. I served this with wedges of lemon, green beans (simply boiled) and shredded cabbage and julienned carrot dressed in my mustard honey dressing.

Classically, this is perfect with cold beer but we do not drink beer anymore so we had this with cold sake.